THE CLEAN-SHAVEN, middle-aged academic in Lahore is under fire from his wife and his bushy-bearded 20-year-old son, a student. Last year he completed the haj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim is expected to make at least once. Now, after a lifetime of weekly attendance at the mosque, on Fridays, he is told by his family that he should make the half-hour trip there to say his prayers five times a day. “Pakistan”, he says, “has become very religious-minded and anti-West.”

Since 2001, these sentiments—piety and anti-Westernism—have become inseparably fused. Pakistan’s founder, Jinnah, still revered as the greatest of national heroes, created a homeland for Muslims but was a Westernised intellectual, often photographed in Savile Row suits, puffing on a cigarette. Now, though, many Pakistanis see the West as waging war with Islam. The outward forms of piety have become more visible everywhere. Far more women now cover their heads.

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